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theparanormalperiodical · 3 years

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Top 10 Controversial Horror Films That Are Famous For All The Wrong Reasons *gags* *cries*

At the beating heart of horror is offence.

From that undeniable sense of something not being quite right, to the CGI-blood-spurtin’-adrenaline-fuelled scenes that leave us shaking in our boots, horror pivots on the knife edge of controversy.

It’s used to drive plots. It’s used to drive hype. And at the end of the month, it drives studio executives to the bank.

Horror films can be traumatic enough. But there are some films that bear the cross of controversy more than others. There are some films that have been branded as so damaging to their potential viewers that merely circulating copies of the film is illegal.

And yet their infamy has forged cult viewership. What was once shielded from us has now become ‘must see’.

Today we are going to be counting down horror’s most controversial films and what made them quite so topical.

*I’m going to star the ones that you can actually watch without getting traumatised. Some are controversial not because of their content but because some religious or political groups disagreed with them*

#10 - The Blair Witch Project (1999)*

Let’s ease in with a classic - a classic you can watch without sleeping with the light on.

In this found-footage flick we see a team of film students as they explore a local urban legend. But what they find leads them to unknown and ungodly territory.

The problem with this film is that it was marketed as a true story. No, not based on a true story, a true story. Yep, they claimed what we were seeing was real, found footage of some teens going mad as they forage deeper into mysterious woods.

IMBd went so far as to report that the actors were dead. Then, the movie studio super-charged their efforts to confirm to the public that not only was this film 100% real, the three main actors were still missing. The parents of the actors then started receiving sympathy cards.

There’s even a mocked up website that perpetuates these claims.

#9 - Night Of The Living Dead (1968)*

Time for another not-too-disturbing film.

This is the original zombie apocalypse film saw a group of Americans attempt to survive an incoming attack of the undead while trapped in a rural farmhouse.

But the Motion Picture Association of America wasn’t too happy about it. The film rating system was yet to be in place, allowing children to also show up for an afternoon screening and be greeted by a 97 minute montage of extreme violence.

“The kids in the audience were stunned. There was almost complete silence. The movie had stopped being delightfully scary about halfway through, and had become unexpectedly terrifying. There was a little girl across the aisle from me, maybe nine years old, who was sitting very still in her seat and crying”

#8 - Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)

In this psychological film, we watch a random crime spree take place at the hands of a couple serial killers. Loosely based on real murderers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole, its controversial reputation was founded on the gore ‘n’ guts screened in the movie.

Whilst it didn’t receive much attention from the public, various classification boards across the world ensured new versions edited with certain scenes - often involving sexual assault and necrophilia - removed for viewers.

In 2003, the BBFC (the UK classification board) finally allowed the uncut version to be released and Australia followed suit in 2005.

#7 - I Spit On Your Grave (1978)

It’s the original rape-revenge flick. And it managed to piss everyone off.

Originally titled Day of the Woman, it tells the story of a fiction writer who exacts revenge on a group of four men who gang rape her.

Despite its pro-women claim-to-fame, the 30 minute rape scene begs to differ. Furious debate surrounds its feminist label as a film that forces the audience to endure rape from a female perspective and long-winded violence against men (something which is often reserved for women in horror). Regardless, the graphic violence earned it a steady ban in Ireland, Norway, Iceland, and West Germany.

#6 - Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)*

You don’t get many controversial Christmas films. They typically stick to a cookie-cutter plot ‘n’ purpose every holiday season. But there are no strong women who need to rediscover the meaning of Christmas here.

Instead, we see a child traumatised by seeing his parents murdered on Christmas Eve go on a seasonal rampage as an adult.

A week after its release in the early 80s, it was pulled from theatres due to backlash. Marketing was focused on a Santa Claus killer with adverts often airing during family-friendly TV programmes and meant numerous children developed a phobia of Father Christmas. Large crowds protested cinemas with one notable protest involving angry families singing carols at the Interboro Quad Theater in The Bronx.

It was only in 2009 - 25 years after its original release - that a DVD of the film was first made available for purchase in the UK.

#5 - Psycho (1960)*

This legendary film follows the disappearance of a young woman after her encounter with a strange man called Norman Bates, one of horror’s most iconic figures. The controversy that would engulf this fim lay not in the violent attack on an innocent woman or even the disturbing content of the film.

Oh, no. It was because of what the leading lady was wearing.

In the opening scene of the film, we see Janet Leigh wearing nothing but a bra.

*gasp*

This racy attire was emblazoned across promotional material, meeting Hitchcock’s high standards of creating controversy around the movie. There was a no late admission policy for movie theaters, and the posters told viewers “Do not reveal the surprises!” to maintain a mysterious aura around the plot twist.

#4 - The Human Centipede (2009) (all of ‘em)

I’ve watched a lot of horror films, in case you couldn’t tell.

I’m used to watching a scary movie, shaking off the anxiety, and moving on with my life. But there are some that stayed with me. I only watched the trailer for the first movie, and it legitimately traumatised me. It gave me quite a severe, sudden bout of a depression for a solid month when I was 13.

Throughout horror’s goriest franchise, we see an evil doctor and amateur mad scientist attempt to sow several people together into a centipede-like chain from mouth to anus.

*retches*

At the heart of promoting the franchise was controversy. Tom Six, the director, forced a narrative that claimed from the first film that this was "100% medically accurate". He even alleged a Dutch doctor helped inspire the film, confirming that with an IV drip, this was entirely possible.

Although it didn’t receive furore that amounted to serious censorship or long-term banning, it was infamous for having its viewers vomiting in the cinema aisles.

The second film, however, was subject to much more severe controversy and could not legally be supplied in the UK until 2011 due to its heavy focus on sexual abuse, more graphic violence than the original film, and it’s pretty vile depiction of a murderer that was intellectually disabled.

Audiences were used to the graphic nature of the franchise by the third and final release. As the least-controversial and least-enjoyable film according to critics, it barely made a dent in the horror community.

Good riddance, I guess?

#3 - Faces Of Death (1978)

I’m not sure I’d recommend this one per se - but I will give it credit for being an interesting project.

This documentary-style film is a montage of footage of people dying in different ways. As a result of its very graphic and very real content, it was banned and censored in many countries. Only in 2003 was it released on DVD in the UK after a scene was cut featuring dogs fighting and a monkey being beaten to death.

Germany, Australia, and New Zealand followed suit, reversing their bans and releasing edited versions.

However, 7 years after its release, the media revamped its interest in the film after a maths teacher showed it to his class at a Californian high school. Two of his students claimed they were so traumatised they received a costly settlement to reimburse their emotional distress. Things took a darker turn a year later, when a 14 year old bludgeoned a classmate to death with a baseball bat; he claimed he wanted to see what it would be like to actually kill someone after watching Faces of Death.

#2 - Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

This Italian film’s title alone hints towards two frightening things: flesh-eating humans and genocide. In this found-footage movie we see an anthropologist lead a rescue team into the Amazon rainforest to find a group of filmmakers that went missing.

The rampant graphic content including sexual assault and animal cruelty showcased in the film (7 animals were killed during filming in some pretty horrific ways) led to it being banned in 50 countries.

Some also alleged that a handful of deaths seen in the film were real, as were the missing film crew. In fact, the actors portraying the documentarians signed contracts that stopped them appearing in motion pictures for an entire year to maintain the illusion of reality.

And only 10 days after its premiere, the director was charged with obscenity and the film confiscated. All copies were to be turned over to the authorities. There are currently a range of versions that have been edited to varying degrees and are allowed for circulation.

#1 - A Serbian Film (2010)

No.

Nope.

Don’t do it. Don’t watch this film.

A Serbian Film follows a retired porn star who agrees to feature in an “art film” for some cash. Little does he know this film will include rape, incest, pedophilia, necrophilia…

Just don’t watch it.

It is still banned in South Korea, New Zealand, Australia. It is supposedly a parody of politically correct films made in Serbia that are funded by foreign groups and allegedly speaks openly about post-war society and the struggle for survival.

*shakes head*

Off to have a 3 hour shower, brb.

If you, uhhh, liked this post please like and reblog.

And if you want to hear more about horror and the supernatural every week hit follow!

#horror #Horror Movies #horror films #best horror movies #scary movies #banned films #video nasty #a serbian film #human centipede #the blair witch project #cannibal holocaust #faces of death #banned movies #censorship #night of the living dea #controversy #controversial films

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elenamcwrites · 4 years

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folklore - a reading

If you’re a swiftie (officially not capitalized now), like me, you’ve probably been experiencing the mystical reverb and spiritual reckoning that is folklore. You’ve also probably been reading plenty of reviews and analysis articles--there are some stellar articles out there already.

Listening to the album is like lying in a meadow over the course of a summer day, afternoon thunderstorm, and the harsh sunset that comes afterwards, spiraling through memories and contemplation. It’s the best of the worst feelings you’ll ever have, and you can’t stop.

So, compulsively, I had to share my own interpretations and thoughts as I listen to the album again for the 7th time.

the 1 - Starting out with just piano, and then turning into what feels like a casual bop, the attitude of this song starts out very ‘I Forgot That You Existed’. And we hold onto that cavalier, ‘oh well’ attitude until... UNTIL. “If my wishes came true, it would’ve been you.” That line starts the slow ache that builds through the end of the track and makes this song much more more layered and complex than the first song of Lover. Perhaps this is a more honest version of the same feeling. Swift digs deep into that nostalgic feeling, letting us vibe to the wistful wishing at the same time. And of course, there is foreshadowing in the lyrics--film, graves, rose, chosen-family, painting. All of these reappear later on in various songs on the album, and some have been themes from earlier albums, too (especially graves).

Highlight lyric: “In my defense I have none // for digging up the grave another time.”

cardigan - We start with a beat that sounds reminiscent of “high heels on cobblestones,” and it emphasizes this early imagery. Being young is one of the major themes of this song, even though it’s also part of the triptych of songs about a love triangle. The nostalgia feels more specific to young love generally than to the specific lover, asking us to wonder why we judge the young perspective so harshly. The song is an anthem to how much she knew about love, including the pain of it, despite what people say. Swift has shown a special appreciation for the wisdom and raw experience of youth, and this song is another classic defense of the teenage experience. The metaphors in this song are classic Swift, and the structure of this song is reminiscent of ‘All Too Well’--the chorus lyrics change just a bit each time, and we get a powerful, gut-punch verse at the end.

Highlight lyric: “I knew you’d haunt all of my what-ifs // the smoke would hang around this long // cause I knew everything when I was young.”

the last great american dynasty - ‘The Man’ was probably Swift’s first real feminist anthem, directly stating how sexism affects her career and the perception people have of her. But this song gets at feminism from another perspective. First of all, she’s telling the story of Rebekah Harkness, who was the heiress that lived in her Rhode Island mansion before her. She was a trouble-maker in her town, blamed for her husband’s death and for ruining the calm status quo of the old money neighborhood. It’s completely apparent that Swift relates to this experience, and she likely knew some of this story before she purchased her home. In telling the story of a powerful, interesting woman, Taylor is rebelling against the patriarchy in a slightly subtler way than her previous songs--though she still makes her point pretty clear. Swift cares about the herstory of her home, and she’s made this story iconic by including it on her album. It’s like she took the idea of ‘Starlight,’ but instead of retelling a happy love story, she used her powers for an even more important tale. Now, there are also two potential connections to note: Rebekah also went by Betty, and her maiden name was West. Just remember that. And of course, the theme of the mad woman returns later as well.

Highlight lyric: “who knows if I never showed up what would have been // there goes the most shameless woman this town has ever seen // she had a marvelous time ruining everything.”

exile - I like to imagine this song as the follow up to ‘The Last Time,’ from Red. Both are duets, and they both have relatively simple, but strong chords as the primary musical backdrop. Where ‘The Last Time’ depicts a relationship at the cusp, moments before their final conversation, ‘exile’ is post break-up. She’s out with someone new, and we understand this is an unspoken conversation across a room. And the vibe of the songs fit with this progression perfectly. ‘The Last Time’ feels like anxious desperation, but exile feels heavy and depressingly final. We revisit the film motif, and there’s some potential connection to the archived ‘If This Was A Movie’. Now, is that intentional, or does Swift just really like movie imagery? Does it matter? The build in this song is arguably the best on the album, which I think is partly due to the style of the musicality, and partly because it’s helpful to have a lower voice to mix it up. This song sounds the least ‘Swift-esque’ to me--reminds me of Damien Rice most of all--but it still fits beautifully into the album. Also, lots of callbacks in here--town and crown are used a LOT in her prior albums. A few examples: “You traded your baseball cap for a crown” in ‘Long Live’, “They took the crown but it's alright” in ‘Call it What You Want,’ “Staring out the window like I’m not your favorite town” in ‘False God.’ Now, again, these could just be words that she loves to use (they also rhyme with a lot), or there could be some deeper connections. I’m guessing it’s somewhere in the middle.

highlight lyric: “second, third, and hundredth chances // balancin' on breaking branches // those eyes add insult to injury”

my tears ricochet - I’ll admit this song had to grow on me a little bit. Why? Well, I don’t love revenge-ballads. But, this is much more complex than LWYMMD, and like the rest of the album, it centers the more vulnerable side of her anger. This song is 100% about Big Machine Records and Scooter Braun. The funeral is for her--or the version of herself that died just before Reputation--and she is back as a ghost (or another version of herself) to haunt those who caused her death. It’s slow, moody, haunted... Everything you want from a bitter funeral march. The best part of this song is that she doesn’t solely pass blame. She shows off her self-awareness, which has become more common in all her music since 1989, but still very clearly places responsibility on Scooter for her ‘stolen lullabies’ (i.e. her masters). Swift claims this song is about young love gone wrong--but, death is a pretty intense metaphor, and given that she blatantly used it (for the first, and maybe only time?) to talk about her career, I don’t think anyone is buying it.

highlight lyric: “I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace // and you’re the hero flying around saving face”

mirrorball - Maybe I’m just a biased toward romantic and nostalgic songs, because I don’t love this one either. (I’m sorry!) But, here’s what I’ll say: this song is still exquisite. It reminds me of the reverb-radio-vibe of the late 80s songs, but with the astral, saccharine flavor of the rest of the album. If you condensed the Miss Americana documentary into a song, this would be it. A reflection (get it?) of fame and her desire to be everything to everyone--to be well liked, to be the center of attention. The coolest thing about ‘mirrorball,’ to me, is that she hasn’t written a song quite like this before. It’s sort of a manic-pixie-dream-girl version of herself. Swift is telling us that she knows who she is, and that comes with seeing the less ‘pretty’ side.

highlight lyric: “I’m still a believer, but I don’t know why // I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try, try try.”

seven - Can you say haunting innocence? This is a great song for half-attentive listening in the sun, and it could almost be a lullaby. In Swift-lore, the theme of childhood shows up every so often, like in ‘Mary’s Song,’ ‘The Best Day,’ ‘It’s Nice to Have a Friend,’ and ‘Christmas Tree Farm.’ This one is definitely the most dreamy, and it is also tinged with that darkness that consistently underlies all the tracks on this album--“Are there still beautiful things?” Imagine a sepia filter, and that’s kind of what this song embodies. Some fans have wondered about this song as a possible hint to bisexuality and/or relationships with women in general. (See Kaylor fan theories if you want to dive deep.) I can see this--the childhood friend has braids, which could imply she’s a little girl, and they ‘hide in the closet’. However, it seems more likely to me that this is coincidence. Lots of kids play in their closets, and if the song is about the friend’s father being angry all the time (and maybe abusive?) hiding in the closet also makes literal sense. I think the imagery in this song is some of my favorite on this album.

Another interesting point that I haven’t seen discussed so far is that Swift names this song ‘seven’ spelled out, yet uses the number ‘1′ in the first track title. The only other track she uses numbers in the name is ‘22′, which is about being 22. So, she could be trying to push past the idea that ‘seven’ is just about being 7 years old--though I do think it’s about that, too. She could also be intentionally connecting ‘the 1′ to ‘22′ in some way. They are both a similar vibe, and perhaps they even refer to the same time period in her life. If we go with that theory, who was T dating at 22? The most likely candidate for that timeframe is Conor Kennedy, which was sort of short-lived, and didn’t seem to end with as much fire as many of her break-ups. So, it’s possible that it’s about him. Or, maybe she just wanted to make sure we knew that ‘the 1′ was a concept she doesn’t really believe in anyway, and didn’t want to grant it the full word ‘one’. Will we ever know?

highlight lyric: “Before I learned civility // I used to scream // Ferociously // Any time I wanted”

august - It seems clear to me that this is the second song in the love-triangle narrative. I’ve heard people claim this is ‘illicit affairs’, but those people obviously haven’t looked at the lyrics. The narrator says ‘James, get in the car,’ which is directly connected to the lyrics in ‘betty.’ But, even without that obvious link, the style of august fits in with the stylistic choices of ‘cardigan’ and ‘betty’. All three have strong instrumental tracks complementing the vocals, soft harmonies, and lots of wistful lyrics. ‘illicit affairs’ cuts much sharper and deeper, but more on that later. Combining the dreamy vibes of ‘seven’ with the slight bop of ‘the 1′, this track is sticky--easy to get stuck in your head. The only thing I wonder about this song is how old this narrator is meant to be. They’re drinking wine, and she references going ‘back to school,’ which sort of feels like a reference to the college experience. But, the betty and james characters make numerous references that feel like high school. So, maybe this affair took place in another city with a college girl? I have to wonder if this is Swift referencing some of the age-gap relationships she’s been in. Again, with Conor Kennedy, she was 22, and he was 18. She also supposedly crashed his sister’s wedding in August, and that was the start of the end of their short romance. I’m just saying...

highlight lyric: “Wanting was enough, for me it was enough // to live for the hope of it all.”

this is me trying - If ‘The Archer’ was Swift confessing to her bad habits after a couple early relationship fights, ‘this is me trying’ is a desperate reminder a few months into the relationship. The two songs are sonically very similar, and I didn’t love the vibe (sorry, again!) the first time. But, I do love the artistic continuation. ‘this is me trying’ slows us down even more than ‘The Archer’ did, with a drum line that is almost like a heart beat, and it feels much less hopeful as a result. The lyrics are also some of the darkest I’ve heard from Swift--”I got wasted like all my potential” and “could’ve followed my fears all the way down.” My heart almost can’t handle this song, to be honest. She also references films again, but my favorite imagery connection is her standing over the lookout, which calls back to Rebekah looking out over the sea in LGAD.

highlight lyric: “and maybe I don't quite know what to say // but I'm here in your doorway”

illicit affairs - This song has that ‘All Too Well’ ache with a hint of ‘Death by A Thousand Cuts’ energy, and personally, I love it. You’ve got the busy instrumental strings underneath a simple, yet haunting melody line, and it’s that light, anxious tension that fits beautifully with the theme of the song. The lyrics depict the simple, small heartbreaking things that remind you of the pain you’re putting yourself through, which is reflected in the slightly surprising, soaring note at the end of the line in the verses. Whether you’ve actually been involved in an affair, these feelings show up in plenty of toxic relationships, and that universality is part of what makes the song powerful. The lyrics aren’t about pretty images, but that’s sort of the point. It’s prime Swift conversational lyricism, and you could pick out any number of lines that make a painful short poem all by themselves.

highlight lyric: “and you wanna scream // don’t call me “kid,” don’t call me “baby” // look at this godforsaken mess that you made me // you showed me colors you know I can’t see with anyone else”

invisible string - The primary love song on the album, this feels like a follow up to ‘Lover,’ maybe something she’d sing after being married a year or two. It’s sort of like ‘Mine,’ but much more mature, partly indicated by the pace of the song, which is steady and sure of itself. It’s also lovely to me that she’s returned to a bit of her country vibes--I ask you, would it feel like true end-game love for Swift if she couldn’t write a country love song about it? Back when she wrote country, all her happy ending songs were merely aspirational, and now they feel true. This is also 100% about Joe Alwyn, and to me, this is proof they have not broken up like some early reviews speculated. We also need to acknowledge that she’s past the Joe Jonas break up (um, good, that was ages ago) and is sending him and Sophie presents for their baby. I read a review that basically said this song seems a little too ‘all tied up’ for Swift, and that it doesn’t feel as genuine as a result. I sort of agree, but if we can take a sad song and accept that it isn’t how she feels 100% of the time, can’t we also do that with happy songs? Plus, she technically does say that it would be ‘pretty to think,’ which sort of implies it’s more a thought experiment than an actual belief. So, there’s that little twinge of sadness we needed to appease the folklore goddess. Oh, and of course, there’s a reference to Lover’s color scheme, saying time “gave me the blues and then purple-pink skies.” Which, many Kaylor hopefuls read as a reference to the Bi pride flag. To that, I just say... Maybe?

highlight lyric: “time, mystical time // cutting me open, then healing me fine”

Mad woman - My favorite thing about this song is the piano melody that happens in the background the whole song, working in concert with the main melody, but also completely independent (and haunting). It reminds me of one concept of madness--having multiple voices or thoughts going on simultaneously. But of course, it’s artfully and perfectly put together, which is the whole point. What could be perceived as madness is, in this case, what makes her able to create a masterful work of art. Now, this is also certainly a song about her masters, Scooter Braun, and Scott Borchetta. But it is also another feminist anthem. Women are taught not to be angry, not to yell, not to react with any emotionality otherwise we are discredited entirely. Swift directly calls this to attention by explaining that we’re angry for a reason--often antagonized intentionally until ‘you find something to wrap your noose around.’ She also makes the important point that women can also ‘hunt witches,’ and can be complicit in treating one another poorly. This is a reference to Scooter Braun’s wife defending him publicly against Taylor. Probably the most savage line is about the ‘master of spin’ having affairs, which she implies his wife knows about and seems to passively accept. But Swift doesn’t go too hard on her, reminding us that ‘no one likes a mad woman’, and that pressure is real. Could this ‘master of spin’ also be Scooter? I think probably. But I did read that some people are connecting this song to Hillary Clinton (she’s a scorpio, and the song references a scorpion sting), and that maybe Trump is the adulterer here... I feel like that’s a stretch, but I appreciate the interpretation.

highlight lyric: “What a shame she went mad // You made her like that”

epiphany - I suspect this song is directly related to how Swift is processing the current state of the pandemic. The atmospheric vibe with slow, clock-ticking beat in the background really feels momentous and poignant. Yes, she starts with images conjured from her grandfather’s stories of World War II, but she quickly seems to compare this awful battle to the doctors fighting COVID-19 on the frontlines in hospitals. The lyrics are simple, repetitive, and powerful. With so many ill literally struggling to breathe, the lines about breathing out really do hit especially hard these days. I can’t believe that wasn’t a thoughtful choice. The chorus is just barely hopeful, reminiscent of the numbness we all have to use as a coping mechanism to get through traumatic experiences. But it’s that little sliver of hope that makes the song even sadder--is that possible?

highlight lyric: “only twenty minutes to sleep // but you dream of some epiphany // just one single glimpse of relief // to make some sense of what you've seen”

betty - Give me all that Tim McGraw, Love Story, early Taylor pop-country. This song is definitely enhanced in part because of its connections to ‘cardigan’ and ‘august,’ but it stands strong on its own. It’s old news at this point, but James and Inez are based on the names of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’s daughters, so it’s all-but-confirmed that their third daughter was named Betty. Written from the perspective of James, there is massive speculation out there about whether the narrator is meant to be a boy or a girl. There are reasonable clues on both sides, so I’ll just say this: I love Taylor, but she’s always been a little late to the party when it comes to socialized ideas of male/female. Because of that, I don’t think she’d have a female narrator riding a skateboard. I also feel from the style of narration--“I don’t know anything;” “just a summer thing;” “would you tell me to go fuck myself”--it does sound more like stereotypical teenage boy language than what we know as swiftie teenage girl language. What I do like about this song, though, is that because it’s written from James’s perspective, it does sort of leave a wider opening for personal interpretation than some of her other love-story-like songs. The reason I personally love this song is that it’s mostly about redemption and forgiveness. Everyone has wished someone who broke their heart would write this song about them, and so it offers catharsis. Plus, it’s the only song on the album that truly feels happy at the end--thanks, key change! It’s refreshing and heartening, and it’s good timing, too. After the heaviest song on the album, we needed it. (Oh, and there’s a callback to the broken cobblestones from ‘cardigan’. And then he literally mentions her cardigan. So.)

highlight lyric: “if you kiss me // will it be just like I dreamed it? // will it patch your broken wings?”

peace - The vibe of this song is like laying on your couch in the summer with light coming in through the blinds and the ceiling fan is going around just fast enough to keep the warm air circulating, but not really cool you off. This song has a hint of ‘False God’ style, a little jazzy, but otherwise, it’s a pretty fresh feel for Swift. The message fits this thoughtful, lightly antsy feeling. She’s basically saying she wants to start a family with Joe (no, I don’t think she is literally pregnant yet) and settle down, but there is no real ‘settling down’ with her level of fame. I also think that Swift truly enjoys making music, performing, and engaging with her fans, and she doesn’t want to leave that life behind any time soon. So, she’s asking him if he can make that work. It’s, again, a mature vision of what a long-term relationship can actually look and feel like. Not all of us can truly relate to the burdens of fame, but there are other ways we can be unable to ‘give you peace’. No relationship is idyllic forever in the way romantic love often makes it out to be, and this song gives us a more realistic, consistent example. And just in case we thought this was just a nice song, the whole ‘clowns to the West’ is another potential Easter egg. In the lyric video, east is not capitalized, but West is. Most likely, this is a dig at Kanye. If we want to believe Taylor wasn’t being vengeful, it could potentially be a reference to Rebekah (West was her maiden name). I lean toward theory one, although it’s kind of amazing that it works out such that it connects to both.

highlight lyric: “but I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm // if your cascade ocean wave blues come”

hoax - (Phew last one--I don’t have access to ‘the lakes’ yet) Swift can’t end the album without bringing us all back to the raw emotional space she opened up within us. This song brings back similar piano lines from ‘mad woman’ and the image of screaming on the cliffside. Chronologically, ‘hoax’ feels like it takes place after or during the death of her reputation, i.e. the feud with Kim and Kanye, when she was still very vulnerable. Based on timeline, this seems likely to be either Calvin Harris or Tom Hiddleston. It could really be some combination of the two, since many songs aren’t really about just one person. My gut tells me it’s primarily about Calvin, since she’s referenced that they didn’t have a very faithful relationship--”your faithless love’s the only hoax I believe in.” Both relationships travelled a lot--“I left a part of me in new york.” I’m guessing she’s referencing the feud with Harris over her writing credit on ‘This is What You Came For.’ She takes attacks on her career as seriously as hurtful relationships, and since she’s referencing being torn apart by the media when she says that “what you did was just as dark,” I think it’s likely that this also has something to do with hurting her reputation. It’s another hauntingly beautiful song, and you can totally imagine yourself out on that cliff looking at the midnight sea as the piano line ends.

highlight lyric: “you knew the password, so I let you in the door // you knew you won, so what's the point of keeping score?”

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Overall, the album is my favorite of Taylor’s so far for two reasons: 1) the continuity in both theme and sound is stellar, and 2) there aren’t any songs that I don’t like. Usually, there are 1-3 songs on Taylor’s albums that are either forgettable or too on-the-nose for my taste. I’m sure that is a product, in part, of having to craft songs for radio-play and for her amazing, cinematic live shows. Having given herself the freedom to make whatever music she wanted without thinking (so much) about whether they’d top the charts or be good for a stadium concert, she made an album without a single ‘pop just because’ track.

Now the real question is... What will she do with the remaining 6 months of quarantine???

#taylor swift #swiftie #folklore #album thoughts #folklore thoughts #ts #ts8 #tswift #who else was supposed to go to lover fest?

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aishiteru-clip · 5 years

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7 times kdramas made us believe in true love

We all agree that kdramas have taught us many life lessons aside from entertaining us. One of the reasons we keep watching kdramas is the ‘true love’ bond or experience that are portrayed in most of them. And we have to admit it!! We absolutely love seeing the lead couple being lovey dovey and we also cry when they do.

No matter the genre, almost every Korean drama treats the ‘love’ topic really well and so well that we even want something like that in our lives!

There have definitely been moments in the kdrama world that have broken out hearts and moments that made us recover faith in humanity; this is precisely what makes us keep tuned and continue watching many of them. But these, just to prove that love may probably be the most powerful force in the universe.

So, here we go!

Warning: SPOILER AHEAD!

7. - City hunter- Kim Na Na being shot to protect Lee Young Sung

City Hunter is an old classic starring Park Min Young and Lee Min Ho who also actually started dating in real life after working together. They shared an amazing chemistry and we could tell they were truly in love.

One of the most iconic scenes in this drama is when Kim Na Na (Park Min Young) literally took a bullet in order to save Lee Young Sung (Lee Min Ho) and then just said “You saved me twice”. This scene broke our hearts and made us burst into tears. Furthermore, I think we can all admit this was an act of true love.

6.-100 days my prince- Meeting after more than a decade and falling in love again.

I know, I know!! Almost EVERY couple in dramaland has had an encounter/experience/meeting as kids; and traumatic or not that’s what makes them reunite again as adults. Even when this situation has become a kdrama cliché throughout the years, I still think it is a good way to denote the strength of the love bonds that can be developed between two people. I strongly believe writers ought to create different scenarios to treat this topic though.

100 days my prince tells a story of a young love; two kids, a prince and a noble girl, who share beautiful but also sorrowful experiences that somehow will make them separate. Prince Yool still thinks of his first love after their unfortunate separation and loses his memory through some circumstances many years after, but this isn’t a barrier. They meet again and fall in love, OVER AGAIN, without knowing they knew and cared for each other since kids. Can you guys tell me if this is other than destiny?

I think a most of us has dreamed of something like this at some point of our lives. Furthermore, the fact that two people are able to find each other, and fall in love again, no matter what, means they must have been under the power of two forces: destiny and true love.

5.-My love from the star- The whole plot tbh

It’s 2019 and ‘My love from the star’ was aired 6 years ago, so it’s officially an old classic. However, I feel like I really don’t have to explain this one cause during the whole series is more than evident how the leads deeply love each other. That’s probably because Jun Ji Hyun and Kim Soo Hyun had such a great chemistry.

Idk guys but I can’t help but get soft when I hear this title, because it really moved my heart in a way that’s more than difficult not to love the couple or everything it possess.

Do Min Joon (Kim Soo Hyun) could literally hear Song Yi (Jun Ji Hyun) calling his name no matter where he was, he rescued her several times and he was willing to do everything he could for her to be okay. Song Yi was more than in love, she cried rivers and rivers till they could finally be together.

Somehow I consider this drama had a ‘meant to be’ couple, since they ended up meeting through random situations, and more than randomly, because of destiny itself. This kind of situation gives us the ‘true love’ vibe we hardly get in real life. Moving our hearts that’s way is what irradiates the feeling that the reason why the main couple (sometime secondary couples as well) gets together is love.

4.-I’m not a robot- Love heals the wounds of the heart

Okay, first things first, I’m not a robot has the cutest couple in history as far as I’m concerned. There are also two main points of this kdrama I want to explain from my point of view. So, from what we can see throughout the series is Kim Min Gyu (Yoo Seung Ho) has a severe allergy to other human beings and he gets better due to Aji 3’s (Chae Soo Bin) presence in his life. For some people these may look like Min Gyu has a skin disease and Ji Ah is the ‘medicine’ he needs to cure it.

Nevertheless, I personally think that Kim Min Gyu has a psychological trauma caused by other people in his surroundings when he was a kid, that’s why he’s able to touch Jo Ji Ah when she pretends to be a robot without getting ill. What I’m trying to say is that problem was more a psychological thing rather than an illness.

No matter what the illness or condition is, what is remarkable from this drama is that directors and writers give us an important theme which is that regardless of how lonely and hurt you are, love can really heal the wounds of your heart.

Even though at the beginning the story is kinda sad because of the fact that Min Gyu thinks he is in love with a robot and also because of other heartbreaking moments, as the lead couple actually becomes a couple and they solve all their problems, we are able to see many tender and adorable moments that as a matter of fact, make our hearts flutter.

3. - Hwayugi: A Korean Odyssey- ‘Wait for me and I will find you’ promise

Hwayugi is a fantasy drama aired in 2017 until the first half of 2018 and it stars Lee Seung Gi and Oh Yeon Seo. Hwayugi, Hwayugi…This drama has several ups and downs but I guess it is good enough to be in this top. Aside from having such a bad finale, (which the writers tried to fix at the very end) Hwayugi sadly has also bad special effects, which is baffling considering they had a good budget.

Despite all these aspects I just mentioned, Hwayugi still has ‘good things’ to offer. Even though several characters die/disappear what comes behind all these situations is a well-portrayed friendship bond. At the beginning the relationship between the leads starts as a one sided love and then as a mutual love. Even though Son Oh Gong seems to love ‘Samjang’ because he’s under a spell, if we look further we can really tell he loves her for real. At the end of the series, he even gives her one of his eyeballs so he can find her in the underworld.

2. - Stairway to heaven - The whole series even when it hurts

Stairway to heaven is a classic melodrama and if you ask me, it’s probably the most popular kdrama worldwide. This was the very first Korean drama aired on Latin American TV and it got so popular that you can literally ask anyone and they will say they have seen it at least once.

And just because love doesn’t mean happiness, I consider important talking about this drama. First of all, Stairway to heaven has a killer cast and the story is beyond sad. Words could never tell how sorrowful it actually is.

I think the most painful thing in this drama is that the main couple is (almost) never able to be together no matter how much they love each other and how much they try. Song Joo even looks for Jung Suh after believing her dead and does everything he can till they can reunite again. This lasts a short period of time to discover Jung Suh has cancer and is gonna die. I mean, they literally have to face every barrier in the universe to be together and even at the end what gives them the strength to keep living is the love they have for each other, considering everything else in their lives is unfortunate.

The saddest thing is that the people around them would also suffer as well, especially Jung Suh’s step brother that somehow falls in love with her and even commits suicide to save her. But we are gonna talk about this last statement below.

1. - Stairway to heaven. - AGAIN

It has been more than ten years since I watched Stairway to heaven for the first time, and I still can’t get over what Tae Hwa did to let Jung Suh see the man she loves again. There isn’t anything else I have seen in any other drama that is to me more an act of true love than this one. (Even when it is such a sad and dramatic event.)

No matter how much I think about it, this is beyond miserable, considering Jung Suh never accepts Tae Hwa’s feelings because they are siblings but he still does all these for her. At the end this sacrifice is in vain because Jung Suh dies anyway. Such a sad story to be honest.

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igrublocal · 4 years

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10 best Chinese food restaurants in the Long Beach area for takeout, delivery – Press Telegram

It is, easily, the most iconic to-go container in culinary history — a Totem of Takeout, an origami box built for noodles, pork, shrimp and chicken. It’s technically an isosceles trapezoid solid, a three-dimensional representation of a high school geometry problem.

The Chinese food takeout container was born in the last decade of the 19th century, when it was known as an “oyster pail” because, well, it was used for to-go orders of oysters. It was also used, for many years, for honey — and was until after World War II, when Chinese takeout competed with pizza for the food most Americans took home to eat while watching The Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” on small black-and-white TV screens. And for most Chinese restaurants, it’s still the standard for takeout.

This white, waxed container more often than not comes with a red drawing of a pagoda on the side (which is, of course, Japanese) and the words “Enjoy” and “Thank You” emblazoned on the top, and over the fold. Some years ago, the Smithsonian paid tribute to the container with an exhibit called “Sweet & Sour: A Look at the History of Chinese Food in the United States.” And the phrase “sweet & sour” is especially apt, for this is not a container built for searing spices of Szechuan and Hunanese cooking. I guess dim sum will work okay in the boxes. But dim sum isn’t what comes to mind.

Rather, the box is for the classics of Chinese-American cooking. For meals consisting of one from column A, two from column B, white rice and fortune cookies at meal’s end. It meant chicken chop suey, pork fried rice, sweet-and-sour something or other, egg foo young, and lots and lots of tea. It was something you ate on Sunday nights with family. And an hour later, in the old American anti-vegetable parlance, you were hungry again. Or at least you were if your basic diet consisted of white bread and deep-fried everything.

Chop suey is the defining dish when it comes to Chinese-American cooking. The name may (or may not) come from the Cantonese sap seui, which translates as “mixed leftovers.” It was a mishmash, created in the mid-1800s by Chinese immigrants to make their native food more appealing to American taste, what there was of it.

Since there was no bok choy or white radishes or soybean sprouts to use, celery, bell peppers and onions became the ingredients of choice, with shredded meat added, and enough soy sauce to turn the white rice black. Louis Armstrong recorded a song in the 1920s called “Cornet Chop Suey.” It was culinary jazz. There’s an Edward Hopper painting called “Chop Suey” — which is not of food, but of two women, seated in a restaurant, with a sign out the window that reads “suey.”

And it was chop suey that I went looking for. Or at least chow mein and lo mein. In the case of chop suey, old school Chinese-American cooking. In the case of chow mein and lo mein, the Cantonese cuisine which faded in recent years behind a veil of super-spiced cooking. In either case, this is soul satisfying food to take home, and be filled with nostalgia, as you sip your tea, eat your rice, and enjoy your chow, eaten directly from the container with chopsticks, if you can’t muster the energy to put it on a plate or in a bowl.

This is food that tastes good no matter how you gobble it. And if you want, you can still find Ed Sullivan on YouTube. This is a journey into the past, taken one bite at a time.

2930 Clark Ave., Long Beach; 562-982-4288

Let us begin, then, with a Chinese restaurant that exists for takeout only — the perfect restaurant in these difficult times.

The original Yang Chow in Chinatown (with a branch is Pasadena) has been a much-loved destination for those hungry for a cult collection of Chinese dishes — especially the Slippery Shrimp, a dazzling, and deeply addictive creation of chubby shrimp, tender and firm textured, battered, crisped, then cooked in a sauce that’s both sweet and spicy at the same time.

Yang Chow 2.0 is not far from Long Beach Airport, with a handful of tables and a limited menu. There’s Slippery Shrimp, Slippery Chicken and Slippery Tofu, along with sweet & sour chicken, sweet & sour pork, beef with broccoli, Szechuan beef, Szechuan chicken, string beans and a handful of fried rice dishes. The only appetizer is the spring roll. That’s pretty much it. And aside from not offering my much-loved cold noodles with sesame and chicken, I’m happy as a clam to grab an order to go, which emerges from the kitchen with crazy speed.

I’m told the original chef from Chinatown is making the dishes. He’s been working the wok for decades. One bite, and it’s clear — and the food travels very well.

Egg rolls are a tasty starter for a lunch or dinner featuring Chinese food — and also make a wonderful snack anytime of the day or night. (Shutterstock)

What’s known as an oyster pail — a folded, waxed or plastic-coated paperboard container — is the perfect transport vehicle to keep Chinese food deliciously hot from the restaurant to your home. (Shutterstock)

Chinese noodles, fried rice, dumplings, Peking duck and dim sum are among the Chinese food favorites seen here. (Shutterstock)

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Chinese food, including stir-fried pork with red sauce, has long been a tasty option for takeout and delivery. (Shutterstock)

18349 Pioneer Blvd., Artesia; 562-924-4567, www.nankingchineseca.com

Can you be both post-modernist Indian and old school Chinese at the same time — with a menu that often combines the two? Nanking Indo-Chinese manages that hat trick, which is no small accomplishment. This is a classic Chinese restaurant and not a classic Chinese restaurant at the same time. Here, they manage to walk and chew gum at the same time, with no trouble at all. You want chow mein with chicken or shrimp? There it is. Ditto kung pao lo mein (“kung pao” is code for “cashews and peanuts”), kung pao vegetables, fried rice, chili-garlic fried rice, and hot & sour soup.

Nanking offers the food of both the leading cuisines of Artesia, both Indian and Chinese, under one roof. It’s a restaurant where you can order both chicken tikka masala, and kung pao cashew chicken, at the same meal. And why wouldn’t you want to? Variety, after all, really is the spice.

Defining the cooking at Nanking can be a tad challenging, even for the restaurant. At one point on the website, the owners say they “offer traditional Indian, Chinese and Nepali food.” A few sentences down, the cuisines fuse into “Indian-Chinese food.” One sentence later, Nanking is a “truly Indian restaurant.”

Even the name of the city is somewhat befuddling. Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu Province, on the eastern edge of China, not far from Shanghai. But far from India. It’s all a big jumble. Which would be bothersome, if it weren’t so much fun. Especially when it comes to parsing the roots of the dishes, most of which are either Indian or Chinese, but several of which hit both points on the culinary compass.

There is, for instance, a dish called Chinese bhel. It seems to be a modified variation of the snack dish called bhel puri, a very tasty mix of puffed rice, veggies and tamarind sauce — one of the many small chaat dishes that you’ll find at the numerous Indian snack shops in Artesia. In this case, it’s made “Chinese” with the addition of thin crunchy noodles, in a spicy-sweet sauce. Is it Indian? Is it Chinese? Is it both? Whatever…it’s a good snack, and goes well with beer.

That’s also the case with the Szechuan fries, which is just what they sound like: French fries flavored with Szechuan spices. If anything, they’re more an American-Chinese dish; Rachael Ray has a recipe online, and there are numerous YouTube videos of how to make it. Which doesn’t take much skill. Less skill than the chicken lollipops, which are essentially Buffalo chicken wings, but once again with a Szechuan sauce. It’s nice how a few spices can turn one cuisine into another.

Perhaps the most blended dish on the menu is the Szechuan paneer, which involves tossing usually bland Indian paneer cheese, which is like a child of cottage cheese and ricotta, with that same Szechuan sauce, turning spiceless into happily spicy — a very good idea. Under the enticing heading “Bombay Style Chinese” — Szechuan prawns, chili chicken, shrimp & cashew curry and so on.

Four of the five noodle dishes are straight-forward Chinese, with the red curry spice Malaysian noodles being the outsider. There’s a very small section of Nepalese dishes, just four. But among the rice dishes, the cuisines of origin move around Asia; Kashmiri pulao, Chinese fried rice, Szechuan fried rice, Thai fried rice. The desserts are solidly Indian — though I’m not sure of the mango soufflé, which may be French, and causes that much more ethnic confusion.

6563 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach; 562-430-6888, www.nomadasianbistro.com

Like Nanking Indo-Chinese, Nomad Asian likes to move around the map — appropriate for a restaurant named “Nomad.”

In terms of old school Chinese dishes, there are plenty. Chow mein (described on the menu as as “spaghetti chow mein noodle”), with chicken, beef, shrimp, vegetables or a combo three-flavor. The chow mein is also available “handmade” (“wide flat noodle”) for $2 more. There’s Three Flavor Spicy Curry Fried Rice (“blendo” time again!), three-flavor fried rice, and Singapore noodles.

The menu stretches to about 100 dishes. And among them, you’ll find many of dishes so many of us grew up with — good, old-fashioned chop suey, made with chicken or beef. (And with sole, which is a new one on me.) There are wonton “stars,” filled with cream cheese and “krab.”

If you long for wonton soup, here it is. The classic dishes here are well prepared — they bring back lots of happy memories of the Chinese food we used to live on. I’m happy to dig into a plate of spring rolls, with chicken or with veggies. The honey-ginger chicken wings are pretty sweet, maybe too sweet, but that didn’t keep me from inhaling them. And much the same can be said of sugary preparations like the orange chicken, the honey-ginger fried chicken, the orange beef, the honey walnut shrimp and so forth. A reminder that back in the day, we liked our Chinese food sweet.

Indeed, we probably liked all our food sweet; remember Jell-O salads? But times change, and tastes evolve. Which is why the Hui dishes (or at least the dishes from the Northern Provinces) are so appealing. Northern Chinese cooking involves a lot of lamb — and over there, more likely mutton than lamb.

The cumin lamb is a wonderful thing — tender and sweet, as lamb tends to be, in a thick basting of pungent cumin. The lamb with scallions, is also heavy with garlic and ginger — a major flavor explosion. There’s lamb with pickled cabbage and dry red chiles, and lamb with garlic and jalapeños. There’s lamb tripe and lamb offal. Which is not a dish for those who dream of fried rice. Lamb offal is also served as a soup. And, there’s lamb with pickled cabbage. A litany of strong flavors that set Nomad apart.

11740 Artesia Blvd., Artesia; 562-809-3887, www.omarskitchenla.com

You’ll notice that there’s no pork on the menu at Omar’s Halal Chinese, for “Halal” refers to the Islamic code of permissible ingredients, of which pork (akin to kosher) is not one. The menu also notes that the chicken, beef and lamb are “100 Percent Zabihah” — which means they’ve been slaughtered following a well-established code of ethical rules (once again, akin to kosher).

This is the cooking of northern and western China, with its sizable Muslim population. And of the Uyghur people who live in the adjoining regions — and have their own adjoining section of of dishes on the menu. And having taken care of the technical details, let me tell you how good the food is. If it’s the classics you hunger for, there’s kung pao beef and kung pao chicken, General Tso’s chicken, orange chicken and Szechuan chicken. There’s chow mein with lamb, beef, chicken or shrimp; and fried rice with the same foursome.

But beyond this, what dominates is a menu of lamb and spice heavy dishes. Indeed, an entire section of the menu is dedicated solely to lamb — 17 dishes that, recited in a row, sound a bit like the classic Monty Python Spam routine — jalapeño lamb, basil lamb, curry lamb, lamb with green onion, kung pao lamb and so forth. There are also lamb kebabs, cumin lab, cumin lamb kidneys, cumin lamb ribs, lamb dumplings and lamb potstickers. And lamb soup, which sits on the menu next to haggis soup — which is made with lamb parts.

I don’t think there’s any lamb among the seafood dishes. But I could be wrong. And the Uyghur cumin lamb dishes are so intense, they can be tasted days later. Their cold noodles are an exercise in taste, texture and temperature — the cold noodles with cumin lamb is essential at Omar’s. The fried lamb ribs with hot pepper sauce isn’t for the faint of palate. Luckily, there’s homemade yogurt to cool you down — though this is yogurt for those who love the sourness of yogurt; this isn’t Chobani. This is the sort of food that makes you sweat, cooling you off on a hot day in Artesia.

Tasty Noodle House

11316 South St., Cerritos; 562-809-1333

For those who keep track of such things — and there are more than a few of us who do — there are plenty of “tasty” Chinese restaurants around. Here in Southern California, there’s China Tasty, Tasty Dining, Tasty Duck, Tasty Wok, Hunan Tasty, Asia Tasty, Tasty Zones, Xi’An Tasty, Tasty Goody, Tasty Chinese and Tasty Garden. (Sadly, the wonderfully named O’Tasty, in Washington DC, is closed.)

And, for those collecting their “tasties,” there’s the Tasty Noodle House chain, with branches in Irvine, Hacienda Heights, Walnut, Chino Hills, San Diego — and right here in Cerritos, where every day, all day, you can get tasty noodles and tasty dumplings to go! How tasty is that? You could probably eat here a dozen times, and never order a noodle dish at all. With a dozen appetizers, nine non-noodle soups, 16 dim sum items, about 20 rice dishes, and more than 50 entrees, the noodles of the name can get lost. Though not for long. There are some some 50 noodle soups and noodle dishes as well.

But I wouldn’t pass on the the green onion pancakes, the chive and shrimp dumplings, the cilantro fish dumplings, and the soupy xiao long bao — a dish with a cult following that’s easy to understand, and which travels unexpectedly well.

Did I mention the grilled pork bun? I should; and I now I have. And I do need to segue into the noodles, if only to kvell over the spicy cold noodles with shredded chicken, a longtime passion of mine, that always makes me wonder why I love cold noodles so much. The taste seems so much more intense when the noodles are cold than when they’re hot — though that may be an illusion. But then, much of what we perceive as taste is hard to define.

As a vegetable dish, and there are many, I ate too much of the pan-seared green chile peppers, which aren’t quite as hot as they sound, though they are hot. Not hot at all, and maybe even better, was the eggplant and mixed mushroom with basil. But then, I have a thing for both eggplants and mushrooms, and lots of them. And for spice. It makes the long evenings at home so much more bearable.

More good choices

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ilovereadingandilovebreathing · 6 years

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all of them :P

There’s LITERALLY 50 omg >_> Ah well, if I’m procrastinating, might as well go big or go home. Warning: LONG.

Finally, an ask-meme for writers!

01: When did you first start writing?

My first ever time writing stories was in 2nd grade; we wrote stories weekly in my class. The first time I began to consciously write and consider myself a writer was probably 8th grade.

02: What was your favorite book growing up?

Ahhhh so many. Series more than individual books. Starting from when I was really young, my iconic series were: Clifford the Big Red Dog, Henry and Mudge, Horrible Harry, A to Z Mysteries, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Nancy Drew, and The Chronicles of Narnia, to name a few.

03: Are you an avid reader?

Actual books? Not as much anymore. I’m too tired or busy. I read fanfics, though :p

04: Have you ever thrown a book across the room?

Where the Red Fern Grows lol one of the only books to date to make me cry.

05: Did you take writing courses in school/college?

Writing-specific? No.

06: Have you read any writing-advice books?

I mean, I had to read like MLA manuals and other “writing tips” books for school, so yeah, I guess.

07: Have you ever been part of a critique group?

Not like a real one, just in class in college

08: What’s the best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten?

I think the best feedback I get is on here, really! You guys are super sweet, and some of you offer some great concrete feedback! I can’t think of anything specific, but I also get really tickled when someone comments on my writing style.

09: What’s the worst piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten?

Worst as in quality wise was “this was good.” or something like that lol

Worst as far as soul-crushing...ooo. Story Time!

Freshman year of college. I had to take this like early-level English class, and the focus was on nonfiction writing and stuff like that. My professor often picked apart my papers because he didn’t like my writing style, especially not my prose, because he said it was way too florid (flowery or wordy). That made me really sad, but then I had another professor who taught a senior level class who LOVED my prose, so. It’s all relative.

10: What’s your biggest writer pet-peeve?

Mmmmmmm when people use the same word over and over and over again (which, I am so guilty of, so that’s probs why it bugs me haha) Also too many short sentences. I literally can’t read something if the syntax isn’t varied enough to flow.

11: What’s your favorite book cover?

OOOOoooo I like this one! But sadly I don’t pay attention enough to have an answer to this...Citizen by Claudia Rankine has a pretty thought-provoking cover. I also like the Penguin Classics cover of The Crucible.

12: Who is your favorite author?

C.S. Lewis is a p cool dude

13: What’s your favorite writing quote?

Quote about writing? This was an important one for me as a growing writer and person, tbh:

“I deal with writer’s block by lowering my expectations. I think the trouble starts when you sit down to write and imagine that you will achieve something magical and magnificent—and when you don’t, panic sets in. The solution is never to sit down and imagine that you will achieve something magical and magnificent. I write a little bit, almost every day, and if it results in two or three or (on a good day) four good paragraphs, I consider myself a lucky man. Never try to be the hare. All hail the tortoise.” ~ Malcolm Gladwell

This is literally me and the roots of my procrastination and anxiety with writing anything, be it fanfiction or school work. I worry too much about making it perfect the first time, but another great quote is: “The first draft is always perfect because all it has to do is exist” or something like that. It’s something I’m still working on, but have gotten better at.

14: What’s your favorite writing blog? c;

You mean besides mine :p haha JKJKJK I don’t follow any purely writing blogs, but I’ve read many GREAT pieces from (I missed SO many people in this, so I’m really sorry if I didn’t tag you. I’m too tired to go hunting too far.)

(Sanders Sides) ssides, random-snippets, tinysidestrashcaptain, stillebesat, pirate-patton, among others

(Soul Eater) smokeandjollyranchers, professor-maka, tsarodat, makapedia, kittenintheden, raining-down-hearts, earth-shines, sandmancircus, poisonedscarlett, among others

For non-fandom stuff, hawaiianmint and garnet-portrait have some great poetry that really makes my heart hurt.

15: What would you say has inspired you the most?

As far as writing, I assume....honestly, being involved in fandoms and writing fanfiction! I’m only where I am now because I read so many great writers and adapted their good habits to my own.

16: How do you feel about movies based on books?

I haven’t been a fan of a ton of books turned to screen productions, so that doesn’t help. I liked the Narnia movies until the Dawn Treader. I liked the ASOUE movie, and I’m still deciding how I feel about the Nextflix series. Other than those, I can’t think of any significant ones, to me lol

17: Would you like your books to be turned into TV shows, movies, video games, or none?

Books that I like or books that I write? Etiher way it depends on who’s directing.

18: How do you feel about love triangles?

Eeehhhhhhhhhhh overused trope that ruins otherwise perfectly good plots.

19: Do you prefer writing on a computer or longhand?

Computer. It’s so much easier. I won’t even pretend.

20: What’s your favorite writing program?

I just use Word, my dude.

21: Do you outline?

Not as often as I should, but it helps me a lot.

22: Do you start with characters or plot?

It’s give and take between both, usually characters, though.

23: What’s your favorite & least favorite part of making characters?

Favorite is customization and how no one can tell you that your own OC is OOC.

Least favorite is how involved and difficult it can be.

24: What’s your favorite & least favorite part of plotting?

Favorite is how much fun it can be to throw in twists and make it all interesting!

Least favorite is how I tend to overthink things or not be brave enough to really GO for something. Also research can suck.

25: What advice would you give to young writers?

You’re young. Don’t worry about being amazing at first. You’ll learn and you’ll grow. Online, ins a supportive community, is a good place to start.

26: Which do you enjoy reading the most: physical, ebook, or both?

Physical 100% (I’d print out and read fanfiction that way if I could okay)

27: Which is your favorite genre to write?

Uuuuuuuuuuummmmmm fiction? lol

28: Which do you find hardest: the beginning, the middle, or the end?

Depends on the story, but usually the end.

29: Which do you find easiest: writing or editing?

Editing

30: Have you ever written fan-fiction?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah yes. help me.

31: Have you ever been published?

Naaahh

32: How do you feel about friends and close relatives reading your work?

Anything other than my fanfics: Shy, but ok.

My fanfics: NONONONONONONONONONONONONO TOO MUCH. EMBARRASSING. -Virgil Sanders 2k4ever

33: Are you interested in having your work published?

I mean maybe, but I’m not good enough, tbh lol

34: Describe your writing space.

My bedroom.

35: What’s your favorite time of day for writing?

I don’t have a favorite, but it often strikes when I should be doing something else.

36: Do you listen to music when you write?

Sometimes! Depends on what I’m writing and how tired I am.

37: What’s your oldest WIP?

I have a lot of things I never finished, but in this case, WIP means, to me, that I might actually finish it, so that would probably be one of a handfuls of old Soul Eater fics I never finished or posted lol

38: What’s your current WIP?

Just one????? LOL

“Patton’s Intuition” (Sanders Sides Fic)

“Virgil the (Semi-)Friendly Ghost” (Sanders Sides Human!GhostAU)

“Eggs and Black Coffee” (A Soul-Eater College!AU)

“A Rose by Any Other Name” (Another Soul-Eater AU)

“Bedside Manner” (Soul-Eater Hospital!AU)

39: What’s the weirdest story idea you’ve ever had?

Mmmmmmm I don’t think I’ve really had any weird ideas. I once thought of doing a Soul-Eater Avatar:TheLastAirbender!AU.

40: Which is your favorite original character, and why?

I have a few original characters. I guess my favorites would be the twins, David and Preston, from a story I wrote in high school called “Buried Alive.”

41: What do you do when characters don’t follow the outline?

Go with it.

42: Do you enjoy making your characters suffer?

No, but sometimes that’s just how the story goes.

43: Have you ever killed a main character?

Not actively in the story.

44: What’s the weirdest character concept you’ve ever come up with?

I don’t have one lol

45: What’s your favorite character name?

Cassidy

46: Describe your perfect writing space.

In the mountains, a sunny day, on my back deck

47: If you could steal one character from another author and make then yours, who would it be and why?

Oooooooooooooooo in the fanfiction world, I really love Marin’s (ssides) University!AU versions of the Sides.

I really like the characters in The Book Thief, To Kill a Mockingbird, and East of Eden. I just really like the personalities and characterizations of those characters.

48: If you could write the next book of any series, which one would it be, and what would you make the book about?

I’d start a new A Series of Unfortunate Events series about little Beatrice.

49: If you could write a collaboration with another author, who would it be and what would you write about?

I’d love to collab with so many writers I’ve read on here.

Mmmmmm IRL though it’d be too embarrassing to try to write with a published author because I’d get too nervous and doubt everything I did.

50: If you could live in any fictional world, which would it be?

NARNIA

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techcrunchappcom · 4 years

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New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/clean-tech-news-views-solar-energy-news-wind-energy-news-ev-news-more-13/

Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More.

Cars

Published on June 1st, 2020 | by Jesper Berggreen

June 1st, 2020 by Jesper Berggreen

A couple of months ago I introduced you to a UK company that converts classic cars to electric propulsion. The company, named eDub Services, was founded by a young man named Kit Lacey, and since my piece on his business, he and I have been in conversation about this fascinating field of entrepreneurship. I have an old Volvo 240 in my garage that one day will need an electric drivetrain for sure, so getting acquainted with someone like Kit is a good bet.

I talked to Kit about the concrete and chronological information on his rebuilds and how we could make it accessible for all of us curious about how such projects can be carried out. This series is the result, in Kit Lacey’s own words. So let’s begin at the beginning.

Part 1 — Finding The First Donor Vehicle

It all started with a road trip. All the best ideas do, in my opinion. Driving down the A1 with my mum in the driver’s seat and my wife in the back. The year is 2013. “How hard would it be to convert a camper van to electric?” I ask my mum. “Not too hard,” she replied. … Maybe a strange question to ask, but there is some context.

I am personally the wrong generation to love classic camper vans. I disagree with, but appreciate this observation. Born in 1988, our family never had one. I fell in love with images of them on tea towels and mugs. Plus, spotting one on the motorway on bank holiday travels. My wife and I were married in 2009 and had a splitty camper as our wedding car. It suited us nicely but we never imagined we could ever own one. Like many, it was a dream of ownership but the concern for ‘issues’ also kept my cash in my wallet.

The classic camper vans, VWs up until the late 1980s, were just as famous for breaking down as they were for their looks and charm. I heard stories of AA vans parking outside VW shows to save them making a long journey for a call out. I guess this is why they have such a “hobby shop” following. People forever tinkering and fixing; making new or just patching up the old. Even specifically VW camper vans have a huge industry built around keeping them on the road. Maybe this is what caught my interest as a conversion. These beautiful steel boxes were already set to undergo any transformation. They can be campers, minibuses, ambulances, mobile bars, the list is endless. So, for me, a camper van would be perfect, but which one?

Early campers were iconic. The classic split-screen camper has carried the image of the hippy vibe for over 60 years and it’s still going strong. But they were rare, and expensive, and normally filled with rust. The later “classic,” the T25, fixed a lot of the running issues plagued by the early campers, but we weren’t going to care about “running issues.” Plus, in my opinion, the T25 is a little ugly (send angry letters to my editor). Note from Kit’s first-in-line editor, Jesper: I like the T25 — it’s boxy!

This left us with the perfect T2. 1969–1979. Early or late was no issue to us.

Now, back to the road trip and my mum’s response. She’s a bit more qualified than you might expect. In 2020, (Dr) Gilly Lacey is a Senior Lecturer in Electrical Engineering at Teeside University. Her PhD was The effect of smart grid utilisation on the degradation of an EV battery and she was one of the first in the country to have a Nissan Leaf on trial. As a family, we’ve since gone through 3 Nissan Leafs, 2 BMW i3s, and a Kia e-Niro.

So, back to the camper. After deciding that the plan was a good one, we started the business dimensions. Classic campers are regularly used for hire, so we figured, as a good return on investment, we should run our electric camper for hire. So, to start us off, we needed the following;

Money

Camper Van(s) — Expertise

Components

We sourced a startup loan to get us started, with a business plan to convert a camper to electric and then hire it out for holidays around Yorkshire. I started a Photo Stream from day one of the project and my first picture was the eDub Logo. The whole plan for eDubs came together very quickly in my mind — from the logo, to the style, to the interior, it all had to be perfect. We budgeted £30,000 ($37,000) and planned a 100 mile range conversion. Follow the series to see how accurate those plans were…

We originally looked for a camper van business for sale. We thought we’d run a few petrol campers for a while to feel out the market, then slowly convert them to electric. We had some good chats with a company on the south coast of the UK that was for sale, but there were disagreements within the business and they didn’t follow through. So we decided to bite the bullet and go all electric with van number 1.

A friend of mine has a mechanic friend who we called to see if he would be interested in the idea of helping us with the conversion. He agreed and we met for a pint at the local pub to talk it through. I always find important decisions like this are best decided over a local Yorkshire pint! So the decision was made to find a van!

Our mechanic was based in a small village near Whitby and found a VW specialist in Sunderland, a few miles north. They had an imported American van that was bought for a customer. The customer had bought the van, gutted it (and I mean gutted!), and then run out of money. So the garage had bought it back and now had it on sale. One phone call later we were on our way up north.

The gutted T2 Camper Van

The van was perfect, a perfect shell with nothing in it. It was stripped and primed but nothing else. The engine was removed, so we asked the garage to keep that and in return they reduced the price. It had the windows removed, and in the back, it had a bit of yellow/green interior seating (no thanks). The garage agreed to paint the van and do a left- to right-hand drive conversion for a reduced rate. The papers were signed and we had a van. She was immediately named Indie, as she was from a town called Andrews in Indiana.

Unloading our first project

At eDub Services, we take any form of donor vehicle. We specialise in VW camper vans because we know how they work, and more importantly, know what components fit where! Classic cars deserve to live on for many more generations, and electrification is the way to do that. If you have the vehicle and the dream, we have a conversion pack to suit.

So, as I said, road trips are how the best ideas come together, with my wife in the back keeping an eye on me.

To Be Continued…

Tune in soon for part 2, where we talk about how much of the donor vehicle we keep and how much we throw away.

All photos courtesy of Kit Lacey, eDub Services.

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Tags: eDub Services, Electric conversion, electric conversions, electric vans, VW Camper Van, VW T2 Camper

About the Author

Jesper Berggreen Jesper had his perspective on the world expanded vastly after having attended primary school in rural Africa in the early 1980s. And while educated a computer programmer and laboratory technician, working with computers and lab-robots at the institute of forensic medicine in Aarhus, Denmark, he never forgets what life is like having nothing. Thus it became obvious for him that technological advancement is necessary for the prosperity of all humankind, sharing this one vessel we call planet earth. However, technology has to be smart, clean, sustainable, widely accessible, and democratic in order to change the world for the better. Writing about clean energy, electric transportation, energy poverty, and related issues, he gets the message through to anyone who wants to know better. Jesper is founder of Lifelike.dk.

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#Technology

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lucyreviewcy · 5 years

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Made in Chelsea - S1 E01

Oh that’s right, this is happening. I can’t remember what prompted this, but a couple of days ago I decided to check how much Made in Chelsea is still available on All4. Guess what, great news guys - all of it. Seventeen delicious seasons. I’m making it my weekly challenge to deep-dive into each episode hoping to find some enlightenment in this absolute masterpiece of constructed reality.

As a disclaimer: I don’t just want to underline that there are elements of this show that are pure trash. Yes, Spencer Matthews’ hair makes him look like the bad guy from an episode of Columbo. Yes, Millie Mackintosh’s inability to open her mouth enough to enunciate a word drives me nuts. Yes, the storylines ache with forced twists and endless shock hookups. All of the above are true, but you don’t need me to tell you that any more than you need me to tell you the sky is blue.

Made in Chelsea is fantastically interesting for a lot of reasons. For one, it has managed to run for seventeen seasons across the last eight years. Why? Some of the greatest British TV shows of all time have had chronically short runs, so what makes MIC so enduring?

Secondly, as it chronicles the lives of the super-rich, the show is 100% built on aspiration and jealousy. Something I often like to mention to MIC haters is that the show borrows most of its conventions and characters from Jane Austen, or for a more recent example, Richard Curtis. The characters are all financially comfortable enough that all they have to focus on in life is who they want to marry. Coupling and uncoupling is central to the society of the show. Imagine a world where all that mattered was who you were putting your lips on (a lyric stricken from the John Lennon song because it just didn’t scan properly.)

To push the envelope even further, I have to point out that these characters operate outside of the boundaries of the real world. They’re not restricted by anything - money can open any door to them, meaning they can travel anywhere, do anything and never worry about staying afloat. If you want to get fancy, Made in Chelsea is a peek at the peak of mount Olympus, and it turns out all the gods are doing is shagging and drinking G&Ts. So... pretty much what they’re doing in the Greek myths but with fur coats instead of Golden Fleeces.

My third reason I love MIC is that this show is a gosh-darned time-capsule. In the first episode, everybody’s favourite posh-boy-cum-human-shark Hugo makes a few passing references to Facebook. Made in Chelsea was born at a time when social media was in its infancy. Nobody is talking about Instagram followers or influencers yet, and Cheska’s Girl About Town blog is treated as some strange glamorous novelty. As if blogging is this amazing cool thing. It’s not cool now Cheska. Everyone has a blog. I have three blogs. Shut up about your blog.

My point is that the media landscape over the last ten years has changed, and with it our concept of what is a desirable lifestyle. A show built on aspiration is a brilliant chronicle of what we thought was cool when it was made.

Having said all of the above, I should probably mention that I also bloody love Made in Chelsea and at the very least my Mum will probably enjoy this blog. Here’s what I thought of episode one.

Episode One - “I’m just hot and I feel like shit.”

A classic Spencer Matthews quote to get the ball rolling.

After an excruciating Blade Runner-esque voice-over from Caggie Dunlop episode one starts at a party in a bar, thrown by nineteen year old (shock horror she is so young to me now) socialite Amber Atherton to promote her jewelry line. Noteworthy moment number one is that most of the characters in the show have jobs, because we no-longer aspire to somehow be so rich we don’t need to work. These are people who really are so rich they don’t need to work, but they all have jobs based on their “passions” or “creativity,” except for Spencer who is a stock-broker because he was born that way and it isn’t his fault.

Amber is the epitome of cool, even eight years on. She’s wearing barely a lick of makeup and dressed like a trendy off-duty archaeologist. Tensions develop between her and big-haired, fake-tanned Cheska, whose blog is considered “offensive” by Amber and hat-princess Rosie. Made in Chelsea is definitely a show which pits women against each other, but that is OK because I don’t get my lessons on gender equality from anything broadcast on E4. (Oh, wait... Gilmore Girls... Never mind.) Both Amber’s pared-down minimalism and Cheska’s full-blown fakery are popular aesthetic choices nearly a decade on. If anything, these style choices are demonstrated in ever more extreme ways by beauty vloggers going all-out on heavy contouring while Pinterest pushes endless “no-makeup makeup” looks at me. Amber, Cheska - there is no need to fight! You are both valid in your style choices.

There are several incredible moments in this episode, but to list them would take more words than anyone is willing to read on the subject - so I’ll be brief.

1) The moment when Spencer’s (in a relationship with Funda) asserts that he and Caggie will “probably hook up at some point” is followed by the lyrics “and the love kick-starts again...” because, you know, what is more romantic than a man suggesting that even though he’s in a relationship he’ll probs bang you some time. Thanks Spenny, you classy.

The whole exchange between Hugo and Spencer is actually brilliant because it establishes, from the off, that Spencer is a walking satire of bro-culture. Later, we even see him cut between sensitive, nerdy Francis as he tries to woo the Cagster after her “gig” (as an aside: we don’t see her sing a note but that somehow adds to the magic.) This moment is literally the uber-masculine Gaston-type kicking every character Hugh Grant played in the 90s in the balls. Perfect, it’s good to know where we stand.

2) The Charles Dickens/Jane Austen/A. A. Milne debate. This moment, a discussion between Binky (brilliant, loveable Binky) Cheska and Ollie, is iconic. Binky can’t remember who wrote Winnie the Pooh, asks if that was Charles Dickens, then says “Oh, no, that was Pride and Prejudice.”

Look its funny to watch rich people get confused by literature, OK?

3) This is my final point but it’s a biggie. The show uses one of my favourite absolutely nutso sexist tropes: “Woman refuses to have sex with her significant other while he is all gross and sweaty ERGO she is a stick in the mud and no fun at all.”

For another prime example of this trope, see Julia Louis-Dreyfus in National Lampoons’ Christmas Vacation.

This trope is utterly mad, but again - at least the show is spelling out where Spencer stands. He’s an asshole. The show is telling us that he’s an asshole. And yet for some reason our protagonist whose full name I presume is Cagoule Elizabeth Dunlop, is pursuing him.

What?

Why would anyone pursue a guy who makes it clear from his first entrance into the narrative that he’s a walking catastrophe of stereotypical masculinity and misogynist values???

And here we come back to Jane Austen, and the basic fact that Mr Darcy is a GARBAGE PERSON. He’s straight up rude to Elizabeth and we know he’s sexist because it’s the past, and yet for some reason...we root for them. I’m genuinely interested to re-watch this narrative unfold, because surely the show doesn’t expect me to want Caggie to get with Spencer? Right?

There we have it, the first episode of Made in Chelsea unpacked for you like a backpack at the end of term, full of hidden treasures, trash and merits you had forgotten about. Tune in next time for more lukewarm takes on telly.

#made in chelsea #retrospective #review #from the start #all4 #2011 #media studies #jane austen #caggie dunlop #spencer matthews #mic

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markwatkinsconsumerguide · 5 years

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Consumer Guide / No.87 / Top Of The Pops LPs archivist & blogger Terry Wilson with Mark Watkins.

MW : Tell me about your background...

TW : I grew up in Aylesbury, and from as early as I can remember, I loved music - and it was these very Top of the Pops LPs which were the earliest I had, bought for me as presents when I was four or five, and spun on an old mono Dansette. Little did I know, the LPs were being pressed in a small plant five minutes from where I lived (I found that out about forty years later!).

I guess Top of the Pops started me on the road to what would become quite a serious record collecting habit, and a love of music generally. I went on to play in a number of unsuccessful bands, before taking up music writing (plug: Tamla Motown - The Stories Behind The UK Singles). I'm now 50, and live in Sussex with my wife and child, and although I completed my Top of the Pops vinyl collection years ago, I still splash out on the odd rarity or overseas pressing when I see it. The overseas ones especially fascinate me, although I'm no longer able fill my home with records, like I did in my bachelor days.

MW : When & why did you set up your Top of the Pops website?

TW : The project started around 1999, and I knew nothing about web design at that point. I'd started collecting the series (as an adult, that is - my childhood LPs were long gone), but this was when the internet was still in its infancy - nothing like we have today. For example, there was no such thing as a Top of the Pops LP discography, so I had no idea how many I needed, what the catalogue numbers were, or what the LP sleeves looked like.

The website project actually began as an Excel spreadsheet, where I started listing the volume numbers, catalogue numbers and so on. A few of the albums had gotten into the LP charts back in the 1970s, so the relevant chart books were consulted and provided a few more snippets - that's how hard it was to find anything out before the internet, young people. That listing gradually expanded to the point where I thought I'd try my hand at making a website, which was a steep learning curve for me. I guess it went online around 2005.

MW : How have you developed the site since its beginnings?

TW : The first site I made was quite different to the current one. The technology was much more clunky, and the pages were all out of line. It wasn't great, but at least gave me a grounding in web design, so I knew what I needed to do. I made the decision around 2008 to re-invent it using a different host, whose layouts I much preferred, and that's where it still lives today. From my perspective, the website was more than just a space to write up and organise the discography; it was also a forum for research. I've lost count of the number of kind people who've contacted me through the site, and given me information, photos and even records over the years.

A Russian collector, for example, used to send me Top of the Pops records from the old Soviet Union, pressed on flexi-disc and coloured vinyl - I'd never even have known about them otherwise. Plus, every new discovery meant a new page for the site, and whole new sections came into being - it has expanded to the point where it's now quite vast. It's because of the size of the site that I started a blog (http://copycatcovers.blogspot.com) where I could flag up new discoveries which might otherwise not get noticed - not just Top of the Pops, but across the whole genre of what I call copycat cover versions.

MW : How do you store and maintain all your vinyl?

TW : I'd love to say I have a dedicated room with security cameras and temperature control - but in reality I store my collection in a humble way on ordinary shelves.

I used to have them in a series of proper LP cases, but they became unwieldy, so I took them out again. Just having them stacked vertically away from undue heat or humidity is all the care they need. The more precious ones are in heavy-duty protective covers, but I don't go to great lengths to look after them, or treat them like precious jewels.

They rarely encounter a record deck, though, as I got together with a few fellow collectors some years back, and between us we digitised the whole set - so the vinyl can stay safely inside the sleeves while I listen to MP3s. The rarer tape editions in my collection are less hardy than the vinyl, so they are housed in protective cases and kept in a safe place.

MW : What are your views on these kinds of LPs - in the sense that they were once seen as cheap and cheesy - until The Mike Flowers Pops lounge music revival in 1995…

TW : There's a part of me that sees them exactly as you describe - cheap and cheesy - but there's another part of me, which I guess is the dominant voice in my head, which sees them as creative fun. It's important to remember these are not compilation albums. The making of them required a band to go into a studio, red light running against the clock, and capture track after track after track - and in this way, the original 'Top of the Poppers' group recorded around 70 full LPs in ten years - by any measure, that's dedicated musicianship, arranging and singing. I can't think of any band in history with such a prolific work rate. I once wrote a tongue-in-cheek article in which I argued these were the most important albums ever made, and by the end of it, I'd almost convinced myself! Two of them even made Number 1 in the UK album charts. That's two more than Frank Zappa, The Velvet Underground, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, etc…

MW : Do you search charity shops and similar for these albums? Your best finds? Any missing?

TW : My UK collection is essentially complete, and has been for a few years - so I no longer hunt them down. For better or worse, I'm past the point where I still find anything I need in charity shops. Overseas releases are a different matter. I buy them when I can, but I probably have more missing than I will ever know. (To my knowledge, I am the only person who's ever researched them.)

When I was buying the UK albums, charity shops and car boot sales were my main source, and I frequented them religiously - there was Ebay, of course, but it costs a lot more to have an LP posted to you than to chance upon it for 25p in a charity shop - so I held out and gradually finished the set. My best find was probably Volume 90 - I'd never seen it, and I was killing time in a town in West Sussex when I had a rummage in a junk shop and found it for pennies. Back then, Ebay was around, but the number of sellers was a fraction of what it is today. On the very rare occasions something like Volume 90 or Volume 91 turned up, they would command prices in the £100 bracket - and that's no exaggeration. (I thereby learned I was not the only one collecting them!)

But most of my truly astonishing finds have been via the internet. I'll never forget discovering one of the LPs had been issued in Argentina, and I bought it immediately. When it arrived, I slipped it out the sleeve to find it was pressed on starburst multi-coloured vinyl. Amazing! And still it goes on - just last year I chanced upon a UK release, a double album of disco tracks by The Poppers, which I'd never even heard of! You never know what will show up next.

MW : Tell me about some of the famous (now) but not famous (then) musicians who started their careers off doing Top of the Pops cover versions...

TW : It would be great to say a succession of stellar names cut their recording teeth on these Top of the Pops albums, but in truth, there aren't that many examples. Those who know about the cover version sub-industry (and Top of the Pops was only one LP series among many) immediately think of Elton John. He did record a good number of anonymous cover versions in the late-1960s for labels like Avenue, Marble Arch and Music For Pleasure, but only one for Top of the Pops - ‘Snake In The Grass’, issued on Volume 5 (which is, consequently, worth a few pounds).

It's frustrating that the session men and women are largely unknown to this day, but a couple more famous names can be confirmed. Tina Charles, for example, who had success with her hit, ‘I Love To Love’, can be heard singing ‘Stand By Your Man’ on Volume 45, while well-known singer Laura Lee performs ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ on Volume 36. We might also mention Elvis Costello's dad, Ross McManus, who sang on more than one LP - including the same Volume 5 which Elton was on. Rumours that David Bowie appears on some are probably not true, but who really knows?

MW : What are your favorite album covers...why?

TW : It may seem paradoxical, but I've never really been a fan of the album covers. There are many collectors of the 'cheesecake' sleeve genre, but I'm not one of them. Mostly, I find them amusing, with the ridiculous poses and whacky clothing - they are sometimes described accusingly as soft porn, but I think that's taking them too seriously. Maybe they were considered more shocking back in the day, but there's one in particular, Volume 8 - in which the model sports a fur bikini! Can you think of a more absurd garment?

I like the quasi-psychedelic cover of Volume 16 but my favourite is probably the ultra-hideous Volume 22 - one of the ones I had when I was a kid. That's famous actress, Nicola Austin, in what can only be described as a roll-neck leotard, capped off with matching sailing hat! We should give a shout-out to Bill Graham, a designer for Pickwick Records, who came up with the iconic sleeve design in 1968. Even into the mid-1980s, when models like Sam Fox and Linda Lusardi were by then appearing on the covers, the design was essentially unchanged. He came up with a classic.

MW : What are your long term plans for the site / collection?

TW : The site continues to grow, every time another record comes to my attention. One area I never did get into was reviews of the LPs. I would have, but a fellow enthusiast, called Tim Joseph, has been preparing a book about them for years, and I didn't want to tread on his toes, so to speak. It's something I might do one day though. As for my collection, I don't know what will become of it! I have some bona-fide rarities in my possession - autographed sleeves, advance promo copies, a genuine gold disc award, and numerous overseas pressings, one of which accidentally includes a real hit recording by Elton - don't ask me how that happened, but so far as I am aware, the album is unknown to his fans and collectors. If they found out about it, they might make me some handsome offers! But who, besides, me, would really want the rest of it?

I doubt I will ever sell my collection, so I guess I'll keep it until I shuffle off this mortal coil, then what will become of it, I don't know. I could offer it to a museum, but I fear they would die laughing! In a sense, I feel I've done my bit in preserving the LP series by photographing, cataloguing and documenting it all - at one point I actually lent some records back to Pickwick so they could make digital versions of some they couldn't locate - and so they were my copies, loaded up globally to iTunes. It's a honour for me, and that's reward enough.

MW : Away from the website, what are your other interests?

TW : I've always had many interests to pursue - I have what's sometimes called the collector's gene.

So when I'm not mulling the small print of old record sleeves, I might be cataloguing every Aston Villa football card ever printed, or compiling a collection of every King George VI postage stamp.

I tend to go for ambitious projects - all or nothing - so when I wrote my Tamla Motown book, for example, I researched and wrote up every single 45 they ever released - a mammoth task which had to be squeezed between building websites, playing football, playing in a band - and also, a full-time job (Special mention here to my patient wife!). I've always had in interest in writing. I used to work as a journalist and edited a few magazines.

These days, much of my spare time is consumed with mixing and remixing music on pc. It's great fun, and the technology is so freely available, anyone can do it.

MW : What's to see and do in the area you live in?

TW : I grew up in the countryside, and moved down to Brighton in my 20s. It's a place I still love - so much going on all the time with bands, nightlife, festivals and so on - but one way or another, I've ended up back in a village.

Life here is quiet, and the village is a bit other-worldly - which is fine - but very different from the pace of city life. Cars will actually pull up to a stop in the middle of the road, if someone's waiting to cross!

The village has its own events - an annual village day, a dedicated fireworks society and various arts’ groups, which I take a passing interest in. Fortunately, there's also a choice of good pubs.

MW : How do you intend to spend the summer holidays?

TW : I have no plans yet for the coming summer - which is leaving it late, to say the least. I quite like the idea of getting a last-minute deal and flying off to who-knows-where, but I'm not sure what we'll do. I get bored easily and like to have things to do and see, whereas my wife likes to lay in the hot sun and do nothing. So, we find things which work for both of us. Last year we headed down to Cornwall to a seaside resort and went out on a few adventures, so it worked for both of us. This year, who knows?

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the-dark-side-of-the-blog · 7 years

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Top 25 Greatest Cover Songs Ever

How often do you find out that one of your favorite songs by one of your favorite artists was originally by someone else? Happens more commonly than you think, yet it does not really undermine the work because we understand that even with the words already written there is a very precise alchemy needed to create a truly great cover. These are my top 25 best cover songs.

25) Sweet Child O’Mine, Luna (Originally Guns N’Roses): The list is 25 best covers, not 25 covers that are better than original because it would be impossible to do a cover that was better than Guns’ Sweet Child O’Mine. Say what you like about Axl and co (really say what you like) but that is truly one of the greatest songs ever, yet Luna more than do it justice. There cover is certainly a very different interpretation but also not all that detached. In terms of its composition it is not all that different but it takes the more electric energy of the original and delivers something more laconic, which should not work but yet does.

24) I Fought The Law, The Clash (Originally by The Crickets): Now some may have known that there was a version of this song before The Clash’s top 10 cover, in the form of The Bobby Fuller Four but unless you have been on the wiki page you probably wouldn’t have known that was a cover to, no matter The Clash’s version is a punk anthem that still stands up all these years later.

23) Valerie, Amy Winehouse (Originally The Zutons): People knew of this song before it was covered by Amy but her version has endured in ways that The Zutons have not. Mark Ronson displays his unparalleled knack for catchy compositions and beats, but its all about Amy and her voice, which was not only one of the most powerful ones we ever had but full of such personality, The Zutons had no chance (although they’ll thank her for all the money she has made them).

22) Jealous Guy, Roxy Music (Originally by John Lennon): Both versions are great but Roxy music might just edge Lennon out. Ferry is somehow able to infuse the song with an even greater sense of regret than Lennon did, while the rest of the band give the song a jazzier edge with the use of the saxophone, which nicely offsets the use of the piano here.

21) Tainted Love, Soft Cell (Originally by Gloria Jones): Okay it might be harsh to call Soft Cell one hit wonders because Say Hello, Wave Goodbye was certainly a hit in its own right as well, but let’s face it they never got close to what achieved with Tainted Love again. A defining track of the eighties and one of the great covers.

20) Take me to the River, Talking Heads (Originally Al Green): Memorably performed on the great Stop Making Sense live album David Byrne made the Al Green classic a staple of Talking Heads work.

19) Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, Guns N’Roses (Originally Bob Dylan): Post Appetite a lot of things held GNR back, mostly themselves to be fair, but on a purely artistic level Axl’s lyrics and their ridiculously grandiose quality has always struck me as a problem. Its not to say he’s a bad lyricist, a song like Sweet Child O’Mine has deceptively great lyrics which stop it from being a bland ballad and make it something more poignant, but after Appetite I think he was far too self-serious and over-ambitious. One way to solve that problem is to use others lyrics and who better than Dylan. This cover just makes sense and I may even go as far as to say it is better than the original.

18) Needles and Pins, The Ramones (Originally by The Searchers): Because The Ramones were such a revolutionary band it is easy to forget that they did have influences, some pretty big ones. They did plenty of great covers of bands from the 50s and 60s that Joey and co grew up with but none better than Needles and Pins which among other things highlights what an incredible voice Joey Ramone had, one that goes a little underrated.

17) Superstar, Sonic Youth (Originally by The Carpenters): Superstar is one of those songs that has been over-covered for sure but there is no getting away from what a brilliant rendition Thurston Moore and co delivered. Its heartbreankingly restrained by Moore, communicating a soft desperation with his voice and giving us some of Sonic Youth’s best work of that decade.

16) Girl You’ll Be a Woman Soon, Urge Overkill (Originally by Neil Diamond): Immortalized by its use in Pulp Fiction, if you had never heard or known of Diamond’s version you could never have guessed it was his song from the Urge Overkill version, which is so dark with Kaatrud’s vocals implying so much more than the lyrics actually say. Urge Overkill may have done little else but they will have always given us this.

15) It’s Oh So Quiet, Bjork (Originally by Betty Hudson): It is tough to say if there is any one quality that is key to a great cover, but I think it always to have a unique and identifiable voice and personality bringing them-self to the song and there are few better examples than Bjork 1995 classic. It has a grunge loud-soft quality, but without the angst, almost to the extent of a parody it fluctuates so much, but whatever the case it is unmistakably Bjork and there in lies the greatness.

14) Piece of my Heart, Janis Joplin (Originally by Erma Franklin): For an iconic artist it may come as a surprise to some that both of Janis’ most enduring hits, this and Me and Bobby McGee, were covers. Whatever the case both are great, but it is Piece of my Heart that makes the list and for obvious reasons, a classic that still holds up today.

13) Where Did You Sleep Last Night, Nirvana (Traditional American Folk song): Its funny before Kurt begins his rendition of this 100 year old song (also covered by Lead Belly) he seems in quite good spirits joking about trying to buy the Lead Belly lead singer’s guitar, but once he starts singing all of that changes. This is one of the most incredible performances ever seen, it goes far beyond showmanship and into something far deeper and darker. Neil Young described it as “like a werewolf, unbelievable” and he wasn’t wrong. There is a moment at the end where Kurt opens his eyes and breathes out for just a second and it is one of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen by a performer. It is wrong that we look at everything Kurt through the prism of suicide but with this cover it is impossible to escape the pain he felt and lived with.

12) Stop Your Sobbing, The Pretenders (Originally by The Kinks): The Kinks and The Pretenders are connected by a lot more than just this song, Hynde and Ray Davies had a child in 1983, but that is beside the point. Stop Your Sobbing is the perfect first single for The Pretenders. Hynde’s voice has this almost brutal confidence and assurance as she instructs whoever to “stop your sobbing”, it straddles the line between pep talk and dressing down perfectly and in the process far surpasses the original.

11) Walk This Way, Run DMC ft Tyler and Perry (originally by Aerosmith): I’m at best an Aerosmith agnostic I like some of their songs but they have never been the great American rock band to me. There is no doubting the greatness of Run DMC’s cover of Aerosmith’s defining hit from the previous decade, but there is also no doubting that it wouldn’t be half as good with Tyler’s contributions. Rock and rap have rarely if ever worked so well together.

10) Respect, Arthea Franklin (Originally by Otis Redding): It is a cliche to say when talking about a great cover that the person covering the song owned it but boy did Franklin own this. By changing the perspective of the song from a male to a female one she not only made a feminist classic but one of the great covers and maybe her definitive track (although there is plenty of competition).

9) Hallelujah, Jeff Buckley (Originally by Leonard Cohen): The most over-covered song? Potentially. Whatever the case Buckley’s rendition overshadows all others. Buckley’s vocals are incredible but in a way that is not very flashy. His sound set the tone for the likes of Thom Yorke and while tragedy may have prevented him from amounting the discography his talented deserved Grace is still a great album.

8) What A Wonderful World, Joey Ramone (originally by Louie Armstrong): One of the great musical parting gifts. On Joey Ramone’s first solo and final album he gave us his surprisingly perfect rendition of What A Wonderful World. The cover achieved a certain level of fame for its us at the end of Bowling for Columbine but that may misunderstand. Its use in that movie emphasizes the ironic quality of the cover, Joey Ramone who sang of wanting to be sedated now telling us what a wonderful world it is, but actually there is nothing sarcastic about this at all. Joey’s vocals are fully committed when he sings of love and hope and that’s what makes such a beautiful cover.

7) Wild is The Wind, David Bowie (Originally by Nina Simone): For all of his incredible achievements and strengths Bowie had a pretty bad success ratio when it came to covers. His Across The Universe is alright but not great, same goes for his Let’s Spend the Night Together and the less said about his God Only Knows the better. Amidst the less than inspiring rendition of classic rock anthems though Bowie delivered a haunting, atmospheric and all round beautiful cover of Nina Simone’s Wild is the Wind. The problem with some of his other covers I think is he tries to make them too Bowie, whereas here I feel he lets the song itself guide the way he sings it. It is simply one of the best album closers ever.

6) Nothing Compares 2 U, Sinead O’Connor (Originally by Prince): Throughout the 80s and 90s the music video became a medium for greater and greater innovation, yet a lot of my favorite music videos of that period are the most simple and stripped down ones, where it is essentially just a camera looking at the performer. I’ve always loved the videos that accompany Alanis Morrisette’s Head Over Feet and Radiohead’s No Surprises and maybe the best example of this comes in the form of Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 U. Her raw emotion in the video completely re-frames this break-up song as one really about a much deeper grief, as she channeled the lose of her mother in a tragic accident. Her raw emotion made this cover unavoidable and unforgettable.

5) Killing me Softly, The Fugees (Originally by Roberta Flack) The Fugees cover takes the softness and melodic qualities of the Roberta Flack original but makes it that much darker and beautiful. It is an incredible cover. Lauryn Hill’s voice has this, I find, difficult to define quality but I’d describe it as a knowingness. I think in lesser hands this cover would have overly emphasized the hip hop traits of the song but here that drum loop is enough to make it a distinctly Fugees composition but also subtle enough to not intrude on Hill’s amazing vocals.

4) Alabama Song, The Doors (Originally by Bertolt Brecht): While Light My Fire and Riders on The Storm have endured as The Doors defining hits Alabama Song is the track I return to most. There is this offbeat darkness, it is not the smoothness most refined sound of a band from that era but it unmistakably The Doors and Jim Morrison. He may not have written the lyrics but you don’t need me to point out just how prophetic it was for Morrison to ask to be shown to the next whiskey bar and demanding you “don’t ask why”. So while it may not be Morrison or Kreiger’s words this is the song that I feel best epitomizes what made The Doors so different and so iconic.

3) The Man Who Sold The World, Nirvana (Originally by Bowie): Before I was a massive Nirvana fan I avoided listening to this rendition of what was then my favorite Bowie song (still in my top 5), I even resented people telling me it was better than Bowie’s original. Once I fell in love with Nirvana and put it on I could not believe just how perfect it was. Kurt and co’s rendition is every bit as brooding, dark and unfortunately prophetic as all the best of Nirvana’s work. The title alone feels fitting of Kurt, but it also worth mentioning how this cover is about more than him, the sound created by the band here is fantastic. Suffice to say this is one of those rare things a good Bowie cover, except it is much more than just a good one.

2) All Along The Watchtower, Jimi Hendrix (originally by Bob Dylan): It is rare for such an iconic artist that there most famous song is a cover but while Hendrix was a good lyricist his status as an icon is about more than his words. It was about his voice, his sonic experimentation and of course what he could do with a guitar. Dylan on the other hand was all about his words. All Along The Watchtower sounds like only something Hendrix could compose and play and reads like something only Dylan could write and that is a combination that can create one of the finest rock anthems ever.

1) Hurt, Johnny Cash (Originally by Nine Inch Nails): Hurt was always going to be high on this list but why it comes number one is that I think more than any song on this list it comes to define what an artist can do with someone else’s work. Everything about Cash’s rendition is trans-formative but not just for the sake of being different. There are many covers that completely change the originally but in ways that are ultimately detrimental. Cash’s Hurt changes the sound, the mood and the meaning of the song but in a way that only enhances its power. I talked about Joey Ramone’s What a Wonderful World as the perfect parting gift but this trumps even that. Its sad and introspective but so, so powerful. Cash’s voice has such gravitas and really Trent Reznor said it best when he described how it was no longer his song.

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actutrends · 4 years

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Meat Loaf, 72, Insists Greta Thunberg is ‘Brainwashed’ For Believing In Climate Change & Twitter Reacts

Tweets

January 4, 2020 8: 22PM EST

‘Bat Out Of Hell’ singer and former ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ contestant Meat Loaf called climate change activist Greta Thunberg ‘brainwashed’ — and Twitter was not having it!

Who knew rock star, Meat Loaf, 72, was a “climate scientist”? That’s what thousands of people were asking today when the singer said he feels bad for Time’s Person of the Year, Greta Thunberg, 17, because “she had been brainwashed into thinking that there is climate change and there isn’t’.’ Meat weighed in on Thunberg during an interview with MailOnline, proving that he has a lot in common with climate denying President Donald Trump, who once fired him on Celebrity Apprentice. Not that he is actually dissing her — at least he claims — unlike Trump who has famously shaded the teen on Twitter. “She hasn’t done anything wrong, but she’s been forced into thinking what what she is saying is true,” Meat Loaf explained, adding that he “feels bad for her” and that he believes she was “forced” into her role as an activist. We’d love to see Greta give Meat the dagger eyes she threw at Trump when he walked by her at the United Nations where she inspired millions of young people around the globe to stage climate strike marches in Sept. 2019, and urged the UN to save the planet!

Twitter users rushed to clap back at American singer Meat Loaf after his interview was published — with many pointing out that his scientific qualifications to comment on climate change were at best, questionable or even laughable. The tweets started rolling in as soon as his interview with MailOnline was published and they were a combination of jokes and harsh words. “Mr. Loaf is a talented singer and songwriter, but not a very intelligent person. I guess two out of three ain’t bad,” one user critically joke, referencing one of best-known songs, “Meatloaf will probably be dead before the worst effects of climate change occur. So he ignores it… Greta is trying to get the rest of us to think about the future survival of humans,” another wrote. “Meat Loaf calls Greta Thunberg brainwashed. Greta should call Meat Loaf well done,” a third hilariously.

Despite Meat’s comments about Greta, the teen — who has Asperger’s Syndrome — has become the face of climate change throughout 2019. Asperger’s Syndrome is described as a developmental disorder which can hinder communication and social interactions, although, most who are diagnosed are highly functioning.

Imagine how hard Greta Thunberg must have laughed after someone had to explain to her who Meatloaf even is. It’s like finding out Pia Zadora doesn’t like your cooking.

— Brad Loekle (@BradLoekle) January 5, 2020

Greta started out as a single protester from Sweden and became an overnight celebrity after giving a powerful and courageous speech about her concern for the environment at the United Nations in Sept. She also had quite the response to Donald’s comments about her win as Time‘s Person of the Year. “Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!” the President tweeted on Dec. 12. The social media savvy tween threw just the right amount of shade when she changed her Twitter bio to reflect Trump’s comments: “A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend,” her update read. Like Donald, Meat has been known to have conservative views on various issues.

THE FACT THAT A MAN NAMED MEATLOAF INSULTED GRETA THUNBERG IM SORRY GIRL

— stephaniedavidescu (@thatsso0fetch) January 5, 2020

Meat Loaf — who has had a music career spanning over four decades — is best known for his legendary Bat Out of Hell trilogy of albums which earned him a Grammy. With over 80 million albums sold worldwide, the Dallas native was named one of VH1’s “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.” Outside of his massively successful music career, he has also appeared in a number of films and television shows including 1999’s Fight Club alongside Brad Pitt, the iconic Rocky Horror Picture Show and Mike Myers‘ classic Wayne’s World. Spice Girls fans may recall his memorable cameo in the 1997 film Spice World where he played Victoria Beckham, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Melanie Chisholm‘s bus driver! The rockstar later appeared on the fourth season of Celebrity Apprentice where he was fired by Donald Trump for a questionable reason. “I think your emotions are beautiful. Even though I think the emotion is a positive, from a business standpoint too much emotion can be not so good. Therefore, Meat Loaf you’re fired,” Trump said in the 2011 episode.

On Meat Loaf’s latest remarks, Greta has yet to comment but we’ll be on the lookout to see if the outspoken activist says anything in the near future.

The post Meat Loaf, 72, Insists Greta Thunberg is ‘Brainwashed’ For Believing In Climate Change & Twitter Reacts appeared first on Actu Trends.

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